I widen my eyes and meet Rory’s gaze. Her eyes dance. I had no idea she would sing tonight.
“Rory’s singing?” Dave says. “Awesome.”
More cheers for Rory and the band.
They start with some oldies that are great to dance to.
“Ready, guys?” I ask.
“Absolutely,” Brock says, taking my arm.
Dave takes the other, and we join several others on the portable dance floor. It’s a fast song, but both Dave and Brock dance close to me. I’ll give Dave the edge on dancing, but they’re both good dancers. Better than I am, to be honest.
I paste a smile on my face and pretend I’m having the time of my life.
And hope Donny’s watching.
Chapter Twenty-One
Donny
Damn her.
Okay, I did leave her in a closet, but I didn’t want to. People kept grabbing me, and it’s my party…
Yeah, I’m a dick.
A big one.
I should have made some excuse.
And now she’s the delicacy in a Brock and Dave sandwich—and I’m sure they’re thinking the same thing.
I love my cousins. Hey, I’ve partied many times with the two of them, picked up women with them. They’re many years my junior, but I taught them everything they know.
Now they’re using my moves on my woman.
Okay, not my woman. But strangely weird that I just thought of her in those terms.
That fuck in the library…
I needed it. Needed it badly, to work off the tension and anger from the talk with Dad and Dale.
But I also wanted it. Wanted Callie. I’ve been thinking about her since the last Steel party. Funny how I never noticed her before. She was so much younger. She was jailbait for a long time, so I just got used to thinking of her in those terms.
No longer.
“What do you think, Don?”
I jerk my gaze to my brother. “Sorry. What?”
“You were a million miles away.” Dale shakes his head. “I asked if you think Raine might help Willow get set up with a salon in town.”
“Oh. I don’t really know Raine that well.” True enough. I sure didn’t want to say Callie already told me Raine was worried about the competition.
“I don’t want to put her out,” Willow says.
“Mom,” Ashley adds, “there’s no hurry. You need to get settled. Deal with your loss. It’s still so new.”
“The best thing for me is work,” Willow says. “Always. I love having work to do.”
“Snow Creek’s a small town,” Ashley says. “You’re not going to be nearly as busy.”
“I understand,” she says. “But there’s only one stylist in Snow Creek. There are thousands in LA.”
“For thousands more people, Mom.”
Willow sighs. “Ash, I’m just not happy unless I’m working. You know that. All those years…”
She didn’t finish, but I know where she was going. Dale confided in me about Ashley’s and Willow’s years in the tent city in San Francisco. Of course she wants to work. She knows all too well how horrible it is to be out of work.
Willow hasn’t realized, yet, that her daughter is a Steel and she no longer has to worry about money.
Of course, that doesn’t mean she won’t want to work. None of us have to worry about money, and we all work. It’s kind of our thing.
“I can ask Raine,” I say.
Ashley’s eyes widen. “Do you know her?”
“She’s Rory’s partner. I know Rory. And Callie.”
And it’ll give me a chance to wrench Callie away from my lothario cousins.
“I haven’t seen Raine tonight,” Dale says.
“She’s in Denver visiting her parents.”
“Oh. Okay.” Ashley smiles. “See, Mom? Relax. Raine isn’t even in town. There’s plenty of time for you to set up shop.”
“Excuse me,” I say to them.
Time for me to take action.
I head toward the dancing—
When another of my cousins grabs me. This time it’s Henry.
“Don,” he says, “I need your help.”
“Sure. What’s up?”
“There’s this hot waitress named Nora who’s coming on strong.”
“Really? Where’s Darlene?”
“She’s in Vegas with friends, a girls’ trip. She already had the plans in place before Aunt Jade scheduled this party. Not that she’d have stayed in town for a party, even a Steel party.”
“So flirt with the hottie. No one has to know.”
“Dude, she wants to do more than flirt.”
“Do you want to do more than flirt?”
Henry laughs. “Spoken like a guy who’s never been in a real relationship.”
He isn’t wrong.
“I was hoping you might be able to take her off my hands,” Henry continues. “She’s just your type.”
“I have a type?”
“Yeah. Double X chromosome, ready, and willing. Right?”
Again, he isn’t wrong.
Except for tonight. I have one type tonight. Her name is Callie Pike, and at the moment, she’s sandwiched between my two horny cousins who aren’t above sharing.
At least they did once.
It sounded hot when they relayed it to me, but I couldn’t get past being naked and hard in front of a family member. Brock and Dave were in college then and acted like it was no big deal. To them, it probably wasn’t. They were total frat brats.